My Axe is possessed!

SteveW

SteveW

Experienced
Running 8.0 Beta since maybe 10 days now...

I built and modified a few presets...and they sounded fantastic! Never sounded better in fact.

2 days later, I turn on my Axe, and every preset including ones I hadn't built or modified, sound muddy and dark. I turned the Axe on and off a few times, but nothing changed.

5 days ago, I go to play, and they all sound same as when I modified them like 10 days ago, great! I have played a good 10 times since, up until today and they are all perfect. I always used the same guitar and even tried a few more, but since they all have EMG 81's, there isn't much difference between 'em, so I know it's not the problem.

Can't understand what may have happened.
 
Our instinct is always to check the most complicated part in our signal chain. But sometimes the solution starts with the first step in the chain. With my previous pedalboard I once had a gig where suddenly my signal disappeared, all but a faint whisper. I got some sound still with distortion, but clean, that was whispermode basically. I would go through all my pedals, searching for the problem. Only to discover that it was the tuner mute switch that was on. Muting almost my entire signal, but not completely. Since the tuner mute switch had no LED I didn't see that it was on. D'oh!

So +1 for checking your cable.
 
Check the Yellow pages for a good exorcist. Make sure he has some experience with electronics demons. They are different than regular demons. Also shop around. Prices vary greatly.
 
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Were you playing at the same volume level? It's pretty amazing how much volume level effects our perception of tone.
Even small changes in volume can make a big difference.
Also, are you sure you didn't have your tone knob rolled off?
 
bondsong said:
Check the Yellow pages for a good exorcist. Make sure he has some experience with electronics demons. They are different than regular demons. Also shop around prices vary greatly.
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scariest-movie-title.jpg
 
I have to check my cables I guess. It's not the EMG's battery - or the volume settings. I will get another cable hooked up to test.
 
unix-guy said:
I've done that before... More than once!
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I've played a short show once where I thought WTF had happened to my sound? It sound all bassy and muddy. Didn't help that the amp I was supposed to play over had died and they had to jury rig something up for me involving a DI box.

Turned out my wah pedal was on and set on the heel down position.
 
SteveW said:
Running 8.0 Beta since maybe 10 days now...

I built and modified a few presets...and they sounded fantastic! Never sounded better in fact.

2 days later, I turn on my Axe, and every preset including ones I hadn't built or modified, sound muddy and dark. I turned the Axe on and off a few times, but nothing changed.

5 days ago, I go to play, and they all sound same as when I modified them like 10 days ago, great! I have played a good 10 times since, up until today and they are all perfect. I always used the same guitar and even tried a few more, but since they all have EMG 81's, there isn't much difference between 'em, so I know it's not the problem.

Can't understand what may have happened.
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Yes I've experienced this same thing recently. After turning on/off didn't help, I figured maybe I was the possessed one(ear fatigue). I came back a day later and all was fine. I then realized I was doing the same thing you prob were doing; tweaking, switching, and more tweaking and switching.... My theory is that the axe gets confused from all the tweaking and switching presets. Things gets "tangled" up in the communication lines from axe, USB, and axe edit. The only thing I didn't turn off was axe edit or my Mac. Should note I'm still on FW603.
 
A few days before I posted this in the thread "about clipping" because "smallstonefan" posted a strange behavior of his AXE so may be it's not the same issue but I can't find a solution:​
I noticed a similar strange behavior of my AXE XL. Sometimes when I turn on, I was getting a subtle but audible distortion in the high end and the preset sounds like to much presence and a little bit thin but my unit wasn't connected to a soundcard or PC only to my Matrix Q12a and MFC. Sometimes a reset solves this problem sometimes not. I couldn't find the cause. Don't use active pickups, changing the cables didn't change anything. My instrument level is 50%, no red LEDs, no extreme presets. This distortion is particular clear on mid and high gain sounds but also in clear settings. The next time I turn the AXE on every preset sounds as it should but this problem sucks because it kills this awesome feeling playing through the AXE if everything is alright.
Any suggestions? and as Billbill discribes above, now I remember that this often happens the day after tweaking or create new presets or load presets from other members like yek or more...
 
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Billbill said:
My theory is that the axe gets confused from all the tweaking and switching presets. Things gets "tangled" up in the communication lines from axe, USB, and axe edit.
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The axe cannot get confused, it remembers perfectly what settings you have defined. But you should not be editing on Axe Edit and the front panel at the same time as herein lies the route to settings not being retained simply because things get out of sync.

An exception would be issues due to inherent firmware bugs but I'm not sure if that applies here.
 
Just update, Q8.1 and make a short and simple audio clip with cubase to demonstrate what I mean, I used the updated preset 59 Bassguy first with my Tele USA deluxe and the second with my Paula loaded with Amber pickups (spirit of 59), as Yek describes in the thread "about clipping" this preset should nearly clean and no distortion. The third audio is for comparison, it´s a short clip a month ago (I think it was Q 6, maybe 7) with my Les Paul and the factory preset 2290 tape delay (USA Rhythm), the delay is bypassed

https://www.dropbox.com/s/udqaadwop4mrk5n/bassguy 59_02.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcuixn2m53kh7q9/bassguy 59_03.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2w5m9i3razqgi2/USA Rhthm.mp3?dl=0
 
rolidoc said:
Just update, Q8.1 and make a short and simple audio clip with cubase to demonstrate what I mean, I used the updated preset 59 Bassguy first with my Tele USA deluxe and the second with my Paula loaded with Amber pickups (spirit of 59), as Yek describes in the thread "about clipping" this preset should nearly clean and no distortion. The third audio is for comparison, it´s a short clip a month ago (I think it was Q 6, maybe 7) with my Les Paul and the factory preset 2290 tape delay (USA Rhythm), the delay is bypassed

https://www.dropbox.com/s/udqaadwop4mrk5n/bassguy 59_02.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lcuixn2m53kh7q9/bassguy 59_03.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u2w5m9i3razqgi2/USA Rhthm.mp3?dl=0
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Yep that sounds kinda bad. Try going into the amp block GEQ and lowering the last couple far right faders and see what that does
 
Billbill said:
Yep that sounds kinda bad. Try going into the amp block GEQ and lowering the last couple far right faders and see what that does
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Thanx, but it´s not the solution of my problem. I´m using the factory preset like it is, no tweaking but the distortion is still there, even with single coil on my stratocaster. Since a few days the AXE sounds bad ass before that this issue was appeared only sometimes. I will create an own post and hope someone could help. Maybe my AXE is broken.
 
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